Welcome to Living Streets Edinburgh

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Edinburgh, with its generally dense population and walkable distances, could be a European exemplar of a pedestrian-friendly city. But the many sensible walking-related policies of the City of Edinburgh Council too often don’t translate in practice into a safe and attractive walking environment on the streets. Motor traffic continues to dominate the vast majority of the city’s streets – yet there are clear economic, environmental and social benefits in prioritising pedestrian movement within a high-quality public realm.

Our overall aim is to:

Promote walking (including ‘wheeling’) as a safe, enjoyable, accessible and healthy way of getting around Edinburgh.

To this end, we want to see:

  • walking given the top priority over other forms of travel in all council transport and planning policies;
  • a reduction in the volume of motorised traffic and its impact on people using the street;
  • better designed and maintained pavements, road crossings and other pedestrian facilities;
  • more effective and joined-up monitoring and inspection of the walking environment by CEC;
  • planning policy which encourages dense, sustainable housing over car-dominated, dispersed development;
  • more effective implementation of pro-walking policies ‘on the ground’.

Our priorities for action in 2025 are to:

  • Campaign for increased budgets (capital and staffing) for the
    pedestrian environment by the City of Edinburgh Council, especially
    to:
    • widen footways;
    • tackle pavement clutter;
    • improve priority for pedestrians at signalled crossings;
    • improve accessibility by installing dropped kerbs and continuous
      footways.
  • Secure better enforcement of controls on parking (including new
    ‘pavement parking’ provisions) and speeding.
  • Support specific local campaigns for place-making and traffic
    reduction.
  • Develop our work on walk-friendly environments at and around
    schools.
  • Influence planning policy and practice to aid walking and wheeling
    and reduce motor traffic.
  • Grow the number of our supporters and range of our campaigns.

If you would like to get involved in our work in any way, please email us at:
 edinburghgroup@livingstreets.org.uk

 

Deputation to TEC on Road Safety, November 2025

20mph, Council Policy, News, Road Safety, , , , ,

Deputation by Living Streets Edinburgh Group regarding TEC Item 7.6, 13 November 2025 (Road Safety Plan Update)

This report includes a number of important topics particularly school travel plans and pedestrian crossings as well as road safety. We would like to make the following brief comments on some key aspects.

Resources

All these crucial activities are hampered by lack of both capital budget and staff resources. We were disappointed that these themes were not included in the list of programmes for capital funding when this committee carried out its prioritisation exercise in May. We hope that at there will be explicit programmes for these items when TEC next reviews capital priorities. For example, funding for the ‘Action for Better Crossings’ initiative, which is a central part of the CMP’s active travel plan, would enable a much more strategic approach to investing in traffic signals and pedestrian crossings. This would not only help people to cross the road safely and easily, but also enhance bus and cycle priority through better use of smart technology. Capital funding needs to be matched by appropriate levels of staff capacity.

School travel plans

We understand that the onus on completing and publishing school travel plans is increasingly shifting from transport staff to schools. We think this is a mistake and will only weaken efforts to encourage safe and sustainable travel to school, given that schools and their head teachers have so many other responsibilities and priorities. Committee has previously observed that only nine school travel plans are currently published on the Council’s website https://www.streetsaheadedinburgh.org.uk/school-streets-1.

Communication and coordination between plans for school travel on the one hand, and active travel on the other, need to be improved. This is illustrated by the recent proposal for three zebra crossings in the Shandon area as part of the Dundee Street active travel scheme. The proposed crossing on Ashley Terrace linking with a new cycleway is more than 50 metres away from the location where the community has wanted for 10 years or more: Craiglockhart Primary School,

Pedestrian crossings

We are disappointed to see continued (partial) reliance on the so-called PV2 method to assess the need for pedestrian crossings which we consider to be obsolete. We would welcome discussion with officers on the methodology, in line with the suggestions which we made in 2022: https://www.livingstreetsedinburgh.org.uk/2022/07/19/lseg-suggestions-on-a-new-approach-to-pedestrian-crossings-july-2022/

Enforcement of speeding and other traffic offences

We have actively supported the Council’s introduction of 20mph speed limits for more than 10 years, and continue to support measures to reduce speed which have undoubtedly saved many injuries and prevented some deaths. However, we are surprised at the absence of any mention in the report of speed and red light cameras, which are a crucial tool to encourage responsible driving. This is especially true for roads which are engineered for higher speeds than 20mph, where compliance with speed limits will be low. Our Freedom of Information request in August revealed that one third of cameras in the city are currently ‘bagged’ and no fewer than 8 were taken out of action this summer alone: bit.ly/47Vjm2W. We recognise that it is the Safety Camera Partnership led by Police Scotland which is responsible for these cameras, not the Council; but as a key partner, we urge the City of Edinburgh Council to press for more use of safety cameras.

We have also written to both Scottish and UK ministers calling for the revenues from these cameras to be retained by the enforcement agency, Police Scotland bit.ly/4mEjR5B. This is necessary because Police Scotland bears the cost of maintaining and replacing cameras which generate no income to them from penalties. This provides an unhelpful financial incentive to withdraw cameras, rather than to extend their deployment as needed.

Living Streets Edinburgh Group

November 2025

Dundee Street Fountainbridge Active Travel Project: briefing by LSEG

News, Road Safety, Spaces for People, , , , ,

https://consultationhub.edinburgh.gov.uk/sfc/dundee-street-fountainbridge-active-travel/

Overview

The chief overall objective is to provide an attractive east-west route for cyclists as an alternative to the increasingly-congested Union Canal towpath. The proposals are in two parts: the main section is on Dundee Street/Fountainbridge from Ardmillan Place in the west (‘Diggers’) to Ponton Street in the east, past Fountain Park, Boroughmuir High School and Tollcross Primary School. The central feature is a new continuous cycleway on both sides of the street with separated kerbs. There are ‘continuous pavements’ installed on side roads, some additional pedestrian crossings, some restrictions to traffic movements and nine ‘floating’ bus stops.  A second section consists of a ‘quiet cycle route’ from from Ashley Drive, Shandon to Fowler Terrace. Polwarth.

Dundee Street/Fountainbridge

Pavements (footways)

Some sections of the carriageway (road) are re-designated as footway: there are continuous pavements across side roads to enhance pedestrian priority; the cycle kerb separators; floating bus stop ‘islands’. There are footway build-outs at some junctions.

There appears to be little if any general widening of the footway along the main road (Dundee Street/Fountainbridge), including  at some of the narrowest sections heavily used by schildren at Boroughmuir High and Tollcross Primary schools.

Some sections of footway will remain less than 2 metres wide – the “absolute minimum” considered acceptable by the Council’s Street Design Guidance (for example, 1.5 metres at Edinburgh Printmakers). There appear to be at least 10 sections of footway which are actually being reduced in width – by as much as 2.4 metres (north side, east of Gilmore Park) – in order to accommodate the cycleway.

Pedestrian /cycle crossings

New or upgraded signalled crossings for both pedestrians and cyclists are proposed at the junctions with Henderson Terrace/West Approach Road, Yeaman Place, Gardners Crescent and Grove Street. A zebra is proposed over Drysdale Road. Continuous footways will affirm and assist pedestrian priority at side roads.

Cycleways

The cycleway mostly operates one way in each direction and is 1.5 meters wide. A hard kerb separator (technically designated as footway) separates it from motor traffic. Cyclops-style crossings (“Cycle Optimised Protected Signals”) which give cyclists priority are introduced at major junctions (Gardners Crescent, Grove Street). The cycleway crosses sections of footway at these junctions and at Lochrin Basin.

Buses

The nine bus stops on the route are being retained, but often moved. They will all have cycle bypasses (‘floating bus stops’) so that the cycle lane passes between the pavement and the bus stop. Shelters are not marked drawings. There appear to be no specific bus priority measures.

Traffic management

Some restrictions to motor vehicle movement are proposed: general traffic (except buses and cyclists) on Dundee Street will not be permitted to turn into Ardmillan Place, Henderson Terrace or Fowler Terrace. The right turn lane eastbound into Viewforth is removed, with Dundee Street becoming a single lane in each direction.

Ashley Drive to Fowler Terrace

This second part of the project proposes a cycle ‘quiet route’ (mostly without segregated cycleways) from the Union Canal at Ashley Drive near the boathouse to Dundee Street via North Merchiston streets.  Some restrictions to motor traffic are proposed, for example a ‘filter’ on Harrison Gardens will stop general through-traffic; there will be no vehicle access to/from Dundee Street from Fowler Terrace). Three zebra crossings are proposed (on Ashley Terrace, Harrison Gardens and Harrison Road) along with several pavement build-outs. Local footways, which are mostly between 1.5 and 2.5 metres wide at present, will not generally be changed.

Key Issues

The most welcome features for pedestrians are additional crossing opportunities, including at the notorious Henderson Terrace (Diggers) junction, and narrowed side roads with continuous footways which calm traffic and enhance walking. The overall volume of motor traffic may be reduced by the traffic management measures.

The chief design concern is the lack of footway widening on Dundee St/Fountainbridge, including several sections which are heavily used by children fromBoroughmuir HS and Tollcross PS school children. Indeed, there are several sections of footway made significantly narrower.*

Pedestrians/passengers will have to cross a cycle lane at every (’floating’) bus stop, a known problem especially for blind and disabled people, and in sections of footway where cycle lanes go through footway areas (like Lochrin Basin).

The scheme is very heavily engineered and expensive at £10million. The main objectives – for both cyclists and pedestrians – could surely be met by a much simpler, cheaper design?

Construction is estimated during 2026-28 but this seems unlikely given that there is no funding in place and the current public consultation on the concept design continues into 2026.

A presentation was held via Zoom on 3rd November to discuss the changes. You can see the recording here – https://youtu.be/5uz__Os0vZs

* The City of Edinburgh Council consultants have provided a table summarising changes in footway widths

Dundee-Street-Fountainbridge-Active-Travel-Project-consultants-summary-of-changes-to-footway-widthsDownload

Living Streets Edinburgh Group: our asks for Holyrood 2026 elections

News, Press Release, , ,

Living Streets Edinburgh campaigns to make walking and wheeling better, safer and more accessible in Edinburgh. We support national calls for the Scottish Parliament to give more priority to active travel and have four specific changes we want parties and candidates for the elections to commit to:

  1. Engine idling

The penalty for breaking the law against engine idling hasn’t increased since 2003 – still standing at £20. This means that it’s not economic for councils to enforce compliance and it is no surprise that there is effectively zero enforcement. This is absurd given the time money and effort spent in recent years on raising awareness of air quality issues in Scotland and introducing Low Emission Zones.  We want to see the penalty raised to an effective level, and index-linked to future inflation.

  • ‘Continental-style’ zebras

We want to see cheap, simple zebra crossings (i.e. ‘paint-only’, without Belisha Beacons) permitted on Scottish streets. This is a quick and cost-effective way to give pedestrians priority, especially on side roads where pedestrian priority is now confirmed in the Highway Code. Evaluations of the design by Edinburgh Napier University and Transform Scotland have demonstrate their potential (https://transform.scot/2023/12/04/new-research-would-european-style-zebra-crossings-work-in-scotland/). The Scottish Government says that it has no devolved powers to even trial these zebras – in which case, the Scottish Government must press immediately for such powers.

  • Roadworks

While roadworks are inevitable both for maintenance of streets and to maintain and improve public utilities, they cause severe and often unnecessary problems for all modes of travel – including pedestrians. The Scottish Road Works Commissioner has stated that 2/3 of works are on footways.  This not only disrupts pedestrians (especially disabled people) but also often results in long-lasting damage to roads. We want to see a ‘lane rental’ system introduced, as permitted in England, where the works undertaker pays for the occupation of the road on a daily basis. This will encourage works to be completed as quickly as possible, minimising disruption, and also increase resources available for inspection of works, improving the standard of reinstatements.

  • Safety Cameras

Two thirds of safety cameras (for speeding and red light jumping) in Edinburgh are ‘bagged’ (out of commission);  8 cameras were bagged in 2025 alone. https://www.livingstreetsedinburgh.org.uk/2025/08/25/bagged-speed-and-red-light-cameras-in-edinburgh-result-from-our-foi-request-august-2025/   This sends a green light to motorists that there are no consequences for speeding and jumping lights. Police Scotland, which operates the cameras, bears the cost of maintaining and upgrading them – but receives no income from penalties, which ultimately goes to the UK Treasury. So Police Scotland currently has a financial incentive to minimise the use of cameras, which are an essential tool to encourage safe and legal driving. We want MSPs to lobby for change on a UK basis so that the revenue generated by safety cameras is retained by the enforcement agency – normally Police Scotland.

Living Streets Edinburgh Group

October 2025.

***

Our call for fair and effective speed enforcement (Letter to Transport Minister)

Press Release, Road Safety

Dear Ms Hyslop

Safer Speeds for Scotland

We are writing to you to highlight a crucial road safety issue that is undermining Scotland’s Road Safety Strategy. Namely the fact that there is no effective enforcement system for Scotland to be able to ensure that safe driving speeds are achieved. 

Given the fundamental importance of safer driving speeds for collision speeds and the resulting casualties, this issue underlies all other efforts to improve driver behaviour. There is no possibility of approaching the ‘Vision Zero’ goal that our governments at UK, Scotland, and local authority levels claim to support, without reform of an enforcement system that is unfit for purpose. 

In Scotland we strongly support the proposed reduction of the national speed limit from 60mph to the more appropriate 50mph on single carriageway roads. This will help to reduce an appalling level of casualties on these roads, especially if followed up with further adjustments to set reduced speed limits that are appropriate to individual road sections. However it will do nothing to ensure that drivers keep to these safer speeds. Without suitably intensified enforcement efforts it is certain that many will not. 

As it stands there are no incentives for either Police Scotland or local authorities to make greater enforcement efforts. All the revenue income arising from fines and penalty charges for speeding currently revert to the UK Treasury, leaving a situation whereby more enforcement requires more expenditure at the expense of the many other pressing priorities for public services. Here in Scotland that income is in effect deducted from Scotland’s block grant, and so is unavailable for any public service purpose in Scotland. There is also no provision for local authorities to assist the police in providing better enforcement. So much for effective devolution of powers to the local levels at which they are needed!

Responding to a question from a Lib. Dem. MP in December, the UK Government minister, Lilian Greenwood, brushed it aside stating there were currently no plans for changes.  

It surely is time for the Scottish Government to demand a system that funds enforcement where it is needed, and at the levels that are needed, through the retention of income from fines and penalties. There is a gaping hole in the devolution of enforcement powers over road safety and it is one which must be fixed. We assume that fixing it commands your support and that of your SNP colleagues in government. So we hope that you will now help in bringing pressure to bear on the UK Government.    

We will also be writing to the UK Secretary of State for Scotland to request his support internally in pressing for this change.       

John Russell

Living Streets Edinburgh Group